


Childhood Promise, Childhood Dream

by Blue_Night



Category: Football RPF, Real Person Fiction
Genre: Car Accidents, Childhood Dreams, Childhood Friends, Childhood Promises, Developing Relationship, First Kiss, First Time, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Growing Up, M/M, Same-Sex Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-21
Updated: 2015-04-21
Packaged: 2018-03-25 03:30:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3795010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Night/pseuds/Blue_Night
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, childhood promises are kept, no matter how unlikely it seems when they are given, and sometimes, childhood dreams come true, even if it takes a rather long time until they do, but, some dreams are truly worth the wait.<br/>Or: Benni's life from the day on when Mats promised him that he would marry him to the day he actually did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Childhood Promise, Childhood Dream

**Author's Note:**

> I needed a break from my WIPs and I badly needed some hoplessly romantic and bittersweet fluff today.  
> My dear readers, I do hope that you will enjoy this little piece of helplessly romantic fluff, please let me know if you did, kudos and comments are love and feed my muse. :-)  
> A million thanks to all of you who will do!

Benni remembers exactly this special day that became the most fateful day in his life, the day that decided on his destiny.

Back then, of course, he didn't know that this day would be one of the most important days in his life. He was five years old and he sat in the sandbox with his best friend Mats, covered with sand from head to toe. It was a wonderful warm summer day, the birds were singing in the sky and the fragrance emanating from the rose bush nearby was sweet and rich. The buzzing of the bees and the bumblebees collecting the roses' nectar filled the air and Mats' happy snicker as they dug in the sandbox with their little shovels was cheerful and infectious. Benni was happy and content and could have sat there playing with Mats forever and a day.

They had just finished building their proud castle, when the younger boy suddenly became serious, looking at him with his big brown eyes. His black curls were sandy and ruffled and his softly rounded cheeks were red from the sun and their efforts to build the most beautiful sand castle in the world. Benni felt as if he would drown in those endless dark-brown eyes and then, Mats said:

“When I'm grown up, I will marry you, Benni!”

Benni blinked, surprised and confused, and all he could do was stammer: “We can't marry, Mats.”

Mats pulled a face and his lips began to tremble as he hung his head, digging with his shovel in the sand. “Why don't you want to marry me, Benni? I thought that you love me! I know that I love you.”

Benni swallowed, staring desperately at the four years old boy who meant the world to him. “Of course, I love you. More than anybody else. You must know that. But, we can't marry. Were are boys. Boys can't marry each other.”

Mats looked up again, his shy smile taking Benni's breath away. “So if two men will ever be allowed to marry each other some day, then, you will marry me when we're grown up?” he asked and Benni suddenly felt tears in his eyes although he wasn't sad, at all. Quite the opposite, his chest felt as if it would burst the very next second because of his happiness and joy.

“Yes, Mats, if two men will be allowed to marry each other, then I will marry you some day when we're grown up,” he promised him. Their heads were now close to each other and when Mats' soft and sweet mouth touched his own, Benni forgot everything else and closed his eyes, knowing that he would never forget this special day and his first sweet kiss.

It was only a chaste, innocent kiss with closed and dry lips, but it was the most breathtaking and wonderful kiss Benni had ever gotten and no other kiss following this one could make up with it, no matter how hard he tried.

**

The year went by, the summer left and the following autumn made the trees colorful and the bees and birds disappear. Mats disappeared, as well, because his parents decided to move to Munich.

Benni was lovesick and missed his best friend taken away from him so badly that he cried himself to sleep for months, but when spring came, he had learned to smile and laugh again. Never as happy as he had smiled and laughed with Mats, but still.  
He left the kindergarten, went to school and found new friends, enjoying his life again. Sometimes, he received a card or a short letter from his childhood friend Mats and now and then, he wrote a letter or a card back.

Time passed by and Benni was now a teenager, kissing a girl for the first time. Girls were sweet and nice, their lips were smooth and soft and he liked kissing them a lot, but deep in the back of his mind, he knew that the kisses he shared with them weren't as sweet and wonderful as his first kiss had been. He pushed these thoughts away, angry and confused, but he still remembered his first kiss with Mats better than any much more passionate kiss he ever shared with a girl.

Benni loved playing football – not as much as he had loved Mats when he had been five years old – but football was his second great love and so he became a footballer. He played in few different clubs and then, Schalke 04 wanted him and Benni knew that he had to take the chance. His heart beat for blue and white now and almost everything seemed to be fine.

His world changed again when Mats suddenly came back into his life.

He had become a footballer, as well, not for Schalke, but for Schalke's rival club Dortmund. He was grown up now, too, hardly a young man, but also not a boy any longer, and he was still as beautiful as he had been with four, still having this unruly messy black curls and those endless dark-brown eyes.

Benni still remembers as if it had been yesterday when he first saw Mats again, there on the pitch, both of them playing football, but for rival clubs. The first minutes were awkward and embarrassing, but then, they embraced each other and laughed, patting their shoulders, both talking and laughing at the same time and Benni knew that he had found his best friend again.

After a few weeks had passed, they started to spend time with each other on a regular basis, neither of them caring about their rivalry on the pitch. Both of them had a girlfriend and neither of them ever mentioned that special summer day where they had given each other a promise, but it was fine with Benni. They also played in the national teams together, first in the U-teams and then in the A-team and their friendship was as strong as it had been before life's cruelty had separated them after that special summer day.

**

Benni also remembers the night they made love to each other for the first time. They were with the national team, sharing a hotel room and when they lay there side by side in the darkness, Benni suddenly felt Mats' hand touching his own.

“Benni? Are you sleeping?” the younger one whispered and Benni swallowed and whispered back: “No, I'm not, Mats.”

“Would you mind if I kissed you?” Benni could hear the trembling in Mats' voice and he knew that his voice was trembling, as well, as he said hoarsely: “No, Mats, not at all.”

The second kiss was as breathtaking and wonderful as the first kiss had been, but, it wasn't an innocent kiss any longer. This time, their kiss was full of passion and longing, a deep kiss with lips nibbling and teasing and teeth biting, with tongues licking and conquering and other even more passionate kisses followed that second kiss rather quickly as hands began to roam and to explore, to claim and to worship the warm male body of the other one. They kissed and they made love and when they finally lay there, enjoying the warm afterglow as they slowly came down from their high, Benni's cheeks were wet with his tears of joy and happiness.

They never talked about that summer day and at the beginning, they still had their girlfriends, but from that night on, their friendship had changed into something more.

Benni still thought about the promise they had made on this summer day now and then, the promise that they would marry each other when they were grown up, but he was realistic and of course, knew quite well that this wasn't possible. They were both well-known footballers and male footballers didn't marry each other. Sometimes, he wished that it would be possible, but Benni most of the times was content and happy with what he had. After all, his life was a good life. He could do what he loved second best – playing football, and Mats was his friend and his lover even though they never said those three famous words.

**

The years went by again and they still played football, fighting against each other every time they had a derby and playing together every time they received a call for the national team. They won the world cup together, became world champions and this almost topped that one special summer day when he had sat with Mats in the sandbox and Mats had promised him that he would marry him when they were grown ups – but only almost.

Benni was happy after that event, he was world champion together with Mats and played football for his beloved Schalke 04 when suddenly, the life he knew came to an abrupt end. He was on his way to Mats, wanted to spend the evening with him when another car crashed into his own car because the drunken driver oversaw the red light.

When he woke up in a hospital bed, immobile and numb, the first thing he saw after opening his eyes was Mats' face. Mats looked pale and thin and he had dark shadows under his eyes from the lack of sleep and his worries, but it was the most beautiful sight Benni had ever seen since that summer day when Mats was four years old and asked him if he would marry him some day.

Mats told him that his hip was broken and that he had been unconscious for six weeks - that he was lucky that he survived somehow while tears of relief and joy rolled down on his face.

Benni wasn't so sure if he felt lucky that he had survived because he knew immediately that he would never ever play football again, and that he had lost everything that really meant something to him within a blink of an eye. He had been at the wrong place at the wrong time and luckiness really is a very fragile thing, but he didn't tell Mats about his thoughts because he didn't want to see him cry again.

The recovery and the rehab took a long time and was painful and horrible and Benni simply wanted to give up and die more oftentimes than he could count. But, Mats was always there for him, even when his girlfriend and a lot of his other 'friends' left him and turned their back on him. Mats was there, fighting with him, crying with him and laughing with him and this eventually helped Benni to regain his will of life.

When Benni finally was allowed to leave the hospital and go home, still sitting in a wheelchair, Mats moved in with him, driving from Gelsenkirchen to Dortmund several times every day. They never talked about it, it simply happened and Benni realized that one thing in his life hadn't changed at all. Mats was still his friend and something more and he would be there for him whenever Benni needed him, no matter what.

The first time they made love after his accident was tender and bittersweet and full of passion. Mats took the lead and was careful not to hurt him, treating him as if he was a fragile precious treasure and when it was over, Benni lay there crying his heart out while Mats held him tight rocking him through the storm of his feelings.

After what felt like an eternity, Benni had shed all the tears he had had in him and he lay in Mats' arms, his eyes red and swollen, his skin pale and blotchy, but Mats looked at him with rapt devotion as if he was the most beautiful thing the younger one had ever seen.

“Benni? Do you remember that summer day we sat in the sandbox?” Mats asked. “The day when I told you that I would marry you when we were grown up?”

Benni's heart began to race and he nodded his head. He remembered that day clearly of course, but, he had thought that Mats had forgotten it. He had been so young, only four years old and Mats had never mentioned that day before.

“Yes, I do,” he said hoarsely. “I told you that we couldn't get married because we were both male.”

Mats chuckled. “Yeah, I know. But, you promised my that you would marry me if marriages between men would be possible and as things stand, they are possible. So, Benni, would you do me the honor of marrying me?”

Benni stared at his friend, stunned and speechless, drowning in those endless dark-brown eyes and suddenly feeling like being five years old again.

“I can't marry you!” he finally ground out although everything inside him wanted to scream: _'Yes, yes, yes, I'll marry you!'_.

Mats paled even more, Benni could see that despite the darkness in their bedroom. “Why not?” he whispered soundlessly.

“Because you are a footballer and male footballer don't marry another men. I'm not a footballer any longer, I'm a cripple sitting in a wheelchair and I will never play football again. I'm...” he wasn't able to finish what he had wanted to say because Mats' hungry lips silenced every further attempt to object, kissing him like someone dying of thirst would crawl the last meters to the oasis in the desert.

“I don't care about me being a male footballer who might be not supposed to marry another man. And you're not a cripple, at all and I don't care about you sitting in a wheelchair, either. All I care about is that you are alive - which is a true miracle considering what your car looked like after this asshole crashed you, and that I won't risk losing you again. I love you and I loved you my whole life. In fact, I can't remember any time I didn't love you, even when we didn't see each other for years. And I do believe that you love me, too, don't you, Benni?”

Benni swallowed audibly, blinking against new tears. “Yes, I love you Mats,” he whispered with trembling lips.

“Then tell me that you will marry me!” Mats laughed and cried at the same time, kissing him passionately.

Benni returned that kiss, laughing and crying, as well. “Yes, yes, yes! I will marry you!”

This night, they made love again and it was perfect and wonderful because they knew that nothing and no one would ever be able to separate them again.

**

From this night on, things were improving. Benni's recovery went much better than anyone could ever have expected and after six more months, he didn't need a wheelchair any longer. Benni knew that he would always need a stick as a walking aid, but he was fine with it and didn't mourn his loss of mobility any more.

One day, they sat in their kitchen, having breakfast and Benni scratched all of his courage together, blurting out: “I want to go to school again. I want to study and become a children's primary school teacher.” He nervously awaited Mats' reaction because they hadn't talked about him working again until now, but Mats only took his hand, smiling gently at him. “I'm sure that you will be a wonderful teacher, Benni, “ he said tenderly. “Whatever you want to do and makes you happy will be fine with me.”

Schalke was very supporting and understanding and payed him a generous compensation for his new start and when the next semester started, Benni became a student, focusing on his new goal to become the best teacher any child could wish for. He found new friends and won back some of his old ones; and when he came home, he did so in the knowledge that the love of his life would be there waiting for him, loving him unquestioningly. He loved his new profession and his studies, his life filled with a new meaning and new challenges and Benni knew that he had made the right decision. One day, he would be a teacher and conjure a smile on his little pupils' lips.

He kept watching the matches of his old club in the stadium now and then, wearing a scarf with his beloved colors blue and white and of course, he watched the games of Dortmund when Mats played, cheering his fiancé on whenever he could. It still hurt that he couldn't be with his former teammates on the pitch any longer, but the sharp pain faded more and more to a dull and bearable ache with every week that passed, leaving only gratefulness and joy that he was alive and together with the most wonderful being in the world.

Time passed by and life went on and Benni was busied with studying and preparing everything for their wedding. He had been pretty nervous the day Mats had told his club and his teammates about his plans to marry Benni, but they all had surprised them by laughing and saying: “It's about time to finally make him an honorable man, Mats, you know that, right? We were all waiting for you to marry for a very long time. Everyone with eyes in their heads can see that you two belong to each other.” and Benni knew that they were right, because they had belonged to each other from that special day on when they had sat in the sandbox and promised that they would marry some day.

**

And now, Benni stands there in his tuxedo before the registrar in the large room of Gelsenkirchen's city hall with Mats by his side, looking at the younger one and remembering everything that happened from the day on when he was five years old and promised Mats to marry him while Mats gently places the wedding ring on his trembling finger.

The room is overcrowded, because they are surrounded by their families, teammates and friends, everyone came, even the trainers and the national team trainer, each of them a witness of their love, but Benni has only eyes for his wonderful beloved husband Mats Hummels-Höwedes.

They have made their vows and confessed their love for each other in front of them with trembling and hoarse, but proud and firm voices and the registrar has made them a married couple with a huge and honest smile on her face, obviously very happy that she is accorded the honor of performing the wedding ceremony between two of the most famous German footballers.

Benni simply can't take his eyes off Mats the entire time, because his former fiancé and new husband looks stunning and beautiful like hell in his own tuxedo with his untamed black curls, his dark-brown eyes and the wonderful loving smile on his face, a smile that tells Benni how much the younger one loves him.

When Mats has put the ring on his finger, Benni does the same and then, they kiss each other. It's only a chaste innocent kiss like their very first kiss so many years ago, but their friends and families are clapping their hands excitedly and Benni can see them wiping furtively their eyes because of their emotion and joy.

After the kiss that confirms that they are truly married now, Mats' teammates guide them to the balcony outside the council chamber, and when Benni looks down at the street before the city hall, he can see hundreds of their fans standing there, Schalke 04 fans and Dortmund fans actually standing side by side, peacefully united by their shared joy that two of their beloved and admired players are married now. They wave and shout, swaying their blue and white and yellow and black fan scarves through the air and Benni clings to Mats' arm because he can't believe what he sees. Mats wraps his arm around him and pulls him close and Benni doesn't try to hide his tears of joy and happiness, deeply touched by the proof of their fans' love and support.

“Benni and Mats, Benni and Mats!” their friends shout and then: “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! We want to see a kiss!” and Erik and Julian gently dig them in their ribs and say: “You have to kiss each other now. We all want to see you kiss!”

And Mats, his wonderful Mats, smiles at him and pulls him even closer, and right before he gently presses his lips on Benni's mouth, he whispers: “I love you, Benni. Do you remember when I told you on that summer day that I would marry you one day? See, this day has come today. Back then, I promised you that I would marry you and I never forgot that promise. Today, I fulfilled my promise and married you and I will never let you go again, Benedikt Hummels-Höwedes. I love you.”

And then, they kiss each other on that balcony, and this kiss is passionate and loving and tender and everything a real kiss should be. It is the most wonderful kiss Benni has ever gotten, even sweeter than his first kiss has been, because today, his greatest dream came true, the dream he had dreamed since that beautiful summer day, when he sat in the sandbox with Mats and the four years old boy promised him that he would marry him when they were grown up.

Sometimes, childhood promises are kept, no matter how unlikely it might seem when they are given, and sometimes, childhood dreams come true, even if it takes a rather long time until they do, but some dreams are truly worth the wait.


End file.
